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Senait Kifle cries while posing for a portrait inside her home in Oakland, Calif. on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. Kifle\u2019s younger brother, Yebio Kifle, is severely ill and is being detained in an ICE detention facility in California City. Kifle fears Yebio will die from untreated medical conditions. The center, the largest ICE detention facility in California, was subject to a class action lawsuit filed by detainees alleging inhumane conditions. It resulted in a judge ordering an external medical monitor to be installed who will conduct an oversight inspection of the facility’s medical care system. \u201cMy hope is for them to schedule him for his hearing and to basically release him to a hospice facility to be taken care of until his day comes,\u201d Kifle said. \u201cI don’t know if his day is in America or his days in my country (Eritrea). It doesn’t matter where. I wanna see him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla opened a congressional inquiry into gaps in the medical care of an Eritrean refugee held at California\u2019s largest immigration detention center last week after learning about the situation in a Chronicle report<\/a>.<\/p>\n A congressional inquiry is a formal request for information made by a congressmember on behalf of their constituent to a federal agency.<\/p>\n Senait Kifle, an Oakland resident, first raised the alarm to the Chronicle about her intellectually disabled 48-year-old younger brother after visiting him on April 6 at California City Detention Facility in Kern County.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n While in detention, Yebio Kifle, who suffers from congestive heart failure, had deteriorated to the point of needing a wheelchair and suffered jaundice, swollen legs and was unable to urinate.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re waiting for him to die,\u201d she said at the time, referring to the detention facility staff. Two medical doctors who reviewed Yebio Kifle\u2019s medical records at the Chronicle\u2019s request and with the family\u2019s permission said he was not receiving proper care for his chronic disease and could die if not treated soon.<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Kifle\u2019s case exemplifies problems that many detainees and their attorneys have raised about both ICE detention facilities and California City Detention Facility, which opened in August<\/a> and holds almost 1,800 people daily on average, according to ICE Data processed by the data platform Detention Reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n